Recap to 2024 - and wishing you a happy 2025

Hello dear readers, and welcome to my New Year edition. Another year has come and gone. I can't believe it is already 2025! It seems like only yesterday we were celebrating the dawn of 2000. Over those 25 years we retired, we lost our parents, our eldest son got married, and had two children, the eldest of whom has just completed Year 12 and going to university next year! How did that happen so fast? At times I feel that time is running out, and there is still so much to do! 

For today I am going to share a few highlights from 2024. If you would like to read the posts just click on the links to go back and take a look. 

In January we travelled to Albany on our south coast so I could attend an Advanced Botanical Eco-printing class with master printer Penny Jewell at Summer School. It doesn't look like I blogged about it, but I have blogged about eco-printing several times before. How far does the hand reach - The Peace Cloth (July 2019)

We attended the Chinese Lantern Festival for Chinese New Year and the Australia Day Fireworks. 

In February we were in the safety boat & on-water control for a dragon boat regatta (a great opportunity to take photos from the water), took photos at a triathlon, and took photos at the South West Multi-cultural Festival - a truly wonderful cultural event with music, dance and food. 

March was spent getting ready for a couple of art markets - The Tree Street Art Safari and the Dardanup Art Spectacular Art Trail

In April we watched our sons compete at the Australian Dragon Boat Championships in Perth, and I collected a photography prize at the Dardanup Art Spectacular, and had an enjoyable market weekend talking to lots of people. 

In April we commemorated Anzac Day and made our annual autumn visit to the Balingup Golden Valley tree park. 

Also in my April-May randoms I announced that my blog had been deemed worthy to be preserved by the National Library of Australia on their research site - Trove This was an unexpected and treasured honour and accolade for the work I have put into my blog which was selected as it was about Western Australia and written by a Western Australian author. And it was on a subject of social, political, cultural, religious, scientific or economic significance and relevance to Western Australia. 

In May I made Quince and Grape jam and revelled in having my blog recognised as worthy enough to be preserved on the National Library of Australia website - Trove. And I had a rather dismal attempt at photographing the Aurora Australias. 

In May I was excited to photograph Spoonbills along the Leschenault Estuary for the first time. 

Earlier in the year I was sorry to be told that the travel magazine, On The Road, which I had been writing for since 2010 was closing down. I was lucky to secure another small writing gig with Caravan World magazine. My first Side Tracks article for Caravan World was published in June. Beringbooding Rock water tank

In July my husband and I took a mini break in Nannup in our beautiful southwest, enjoying relaxing and bushwalking. I wrote two blog posts about it - 

Timberline Trail

Four Aces and One Tree Bridge

In August we visited the annual Blooming Art Exhibition at the Bunbury Regional Art Gallery - hosted by the Bunbury Floral Designers Club. Always gorgeous. 

And did a city photography street walk with members from the Photography Group of Bunbury

In September we went on a 3 week wildflower, midwest and goldfields trundle. The links are in my intro post here - Wildflowers, midwest, goldfields trundle - intro. I still have one more post to share with you! 

October and November seemed to blur by - but I was runner up at the end of year awards for the Photography Group of Bunbury for points scored from our monthly exhibitions during the year. At the AGM I put my hand up to be secretary next year. And I had a market stall at the Stirling Street Art Centre - art in the garden market. 

My Gold awards for 2024

In December we had a couple of nights in our capital city, Perth, and visited the amazing Rone Exhibition at the Art Gallery of WA, and also visited the Museum and the botanic gardens at Kings Park. 

In the last few weeks I have had friends loose a loved one, so I think of them as they start the new year without them. 

Also, here are a couple of my most enjoyed books from my 2024 reading list - (for my complete reading list go to the Reading List tab)

The Librarians of Rue de Picardie - by Janet Skeslien Charles - also published as Miss Morgan's Book Brigade

The Orphan of Salt Winds by Elizabeth Brooks 

A Gentleman in Moscow - by Amor Towles 

Sweet Wattle Creek - by Kaye Dobbie

The Jade Lily - by Kirsty Manning 

So that's it for my little look-back on 2024. I wish you and yours a safe and happy 2025, with new adventures, new inspirations, and plenty to make you smile and give thanks. And I pray for peace around the world. Who knows where 2025 will take us - as Doc from Back to the Future movie says - our future is not written yet, so make it a good one. 

Hoya in my garden

Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 
I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!
   

Mosaic Monday @ Soul & Mind & So On

Saturdays Critters - Viewing Nature With Eileen

Travel Tuesday

Talking About It Tuesdays @ Slices of Life

ThroughMy Lens 
Image-in-ing
My corner of the world through my camera 
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global hosted by Randomosity. 
       and Little bird - Pienilintu
Thankful Thursday 
Welcome to Nature Thursday

Hello there! I love reading your comments. If you scroll down to the bottom you can comment too! I would love to hear from you.

Until then, enjoy your day... 

The Dictionary of Lost Words and the Oxford English Dictionary

I have just finished reading The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. Have you read it? 

This is a fascinating history about the production of the first Oxford Dictionary by Dr Murray and his lexicographers in a corrugated iron shed, the Scriptorium, in Dr Murray's garden in Oxford. Published in separate parts, fascicles, A-Ant was published in 1884, with the last section V-Z published in 1928. The dictionary eventually contained around 400,000 words, definitions and phrases demonstrating their usage. 

Into her book, Pip has skilfully woven real and fictional characters with a background of historical fact like the Women's Suffrage Movement in England and the onset of World War 1. 

I was interested to learn that women in South Australia were granted the right to vote in 1884 and could be elected to Parliament, although it wasn't until 1902 when white women were given the right to vote in Australian Federal elections.

Postscript.... I have just been alerted to the fact that... on 9th September 1893 New Zealand became the first self governing country in the world to give women the right to vote.  

Whereas women were not granted voting rights in the UK until 1928. White women in the USA were given the right to vote in 1920. In all cases, for people of colour and ethic background, the right to vote was granted much later than this. 

The book's blurb says -  In 1901 the word bondmaid was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. 

This is the story of the girl who stole it. 

Who was this girl? She is Esme and her father, who she refers to as Da, is one of the lexicographers. Esme's mother has died, and Dr Murray's housemaid and Esme's minder Lizzie, and her aunt, "Ditte" (Edith Thompson) are major characters in Esme's life.  

As a young child Esme sat under the sorting table at the Scriptorium to keep out of the way while her father worked. Esme steals a discarded word that has fallen to the floor. The word is Bondmaid. She hides the word in a trunk underneath Lizzie's bed. Many more words are added to the trunk over the years and Esme eventually becomes a lexicographer - a person who compiles dictionaries.

Edith Thompson actually wrote the History of England for schools in 1881. Edith and her sister Elizabeth Thompson provided 15,000 quotations for A & B, and continued to provided quotations and editorial assistance until the last word was published.

Pip says that The Dictionary of Lost Words was her attempt to understand how the way we define language might define us.  Pip asks Do words mean different things to men and women? 

The first dictionary was defined by men, ....older, white, Victorian-era men....with women cast in minor or supporting roles. In addition to Edith & Elizabeth Thompson, there was also Hilda, Elsie and Rosfrith Murray who worked in the Scriptorium to support their father. Eleanor Bradley worked at the Old Ashmolean as part of her father's team of assistants. Countless women sent in quotations for words. The women who wrote novels, biographies and poetry that were considered as evidence for the use of particular words. 

The Scriptorium stored the words - written on a slip of paper the size of a postcard. Volunteers mailed them from all over the world. They were kept in bundles in hundreds of pigeon holes that lined the shed walls, with examples of their usage attached as proof. 

The word Bondmaid was discovered missing from the dictionary in 1901 following a letter from the member of the public. 

Bondmaid is not the kind of word people drop during conversation anymore, and that’s for the best: It means “a slave girl.” The word was most popular in the 16th century. Murray’s file for bondmaid, however, reached back even further: It included quotations as old as William Tyndale’s 1526 translation of the Bible....

However all was not lost for the lost word.....In 1933, bondmaid made its Oxford dictionary debut. It had taken nearly five decades to make the correction.  The Time the Oxford Dictionary Forgot a Word

Today the dictionary archives, original slips and proofs are held at the Oxford University Press in Oxford. 

Below you can see Dr Murray in the Scriptorium, and in the group photo, Dr Murray with some of the staff, including his two daughters Elsie and Rosfrith.  

When I was in high school, many years ago, I had a "Little Oxford Dictionary". Last week I went to our two local libraries to find an Oxford Dictionary, but could only find these two. 

At over $1000 Australian Dollars obviously a local library is not going to house all these volumes! I wonder if our State Library might. The Dictionary of Lost Words has really sparked my interest in the Oxford Dictionary and the origin of words. 

The second edition of the dictionary was not printed till 1989. You can now access it on line, but you do need to subscribe. More words being added every year. You can see the new words list here - New words list January 2020

In 2020 the Oxford's Word of the Year encompassed several "Words of an Unprecedented Year". Unfortunately you have to subscribe to find out what they are. I think you might be able to guess what they might be. 

Mental Floss has a list of 13 Facts about the Oxford English Dictionary. It makes amusing reading. 

The most complicated word in the Oxford English Dictionary? Set. In the dictionary’s 1989 edition, the three-letter word contains 430 senses (that is, shades of meaning) and requires a 60,000-word definition. Other short words with endless definitions? Run (396 senses), go (368 senses), and take (343 senses).

 

Have you been to Oxford? We visited briefly on a bus tour in 2005. I now wish I had gone to Oxford University Press archives. But we did visit The Eagle and Child pub, made famous as a meeting place for fantasy authors CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. You can see it below here. 

Thank you to the sites from where I have borrowed photos and information. 

For more information and your own research: 

Lynda Mugglestone - Lost for Words

Peter Gilliver - The Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionery on line 

History of the Oxford English Dictionery

Oxford English Dictionary blog

wikiwand.com/en/Oxford_English_Dictionary

Book review - Publishing Arts Hub

Mental Floss.com - The Time the Oxford Dictionary Forgot a Word

and 13 Facts about the Oxford English Dictionary

Wikipedia.org - Oxford_English_Dictionary

I hope you have enjoyed my look at the Oxford English Dictionary. The more I research the more interesting it becomes. 

I love curling up with a good book. Don't you? What have you been reading lately? Perhaps you would like to tell us in your comments. 

Below is a pic of my old school dictionary. I just noticed it was published in 1941! No I am not that old! It actually belonged to my sister originally and then passed to me. It still has her name in it. Perhaps I should give it back to her. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you and yours are doing well. 

My old school dictionary

I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

   All Seasons

MosaicMonday at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf

Sharon's Sovenirs 

Our World Tuesday

Pictorial Tuesday 

ThroughMy Lens 

Image-in-ing
My corner of the world through my camera 
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global hosted by Randomosity. and Little bird - Pienilintu

Thankful Thursday 
Der-Natur-Thursday 

The Lovin' Life Team over at: Deep Fried Fruit
 Month end link up @ Live love craft me

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December!

December is here! In all the flurry of end of year events and Christmas preparations, I think I need to have a little lie down, with a book preferably. Doesn't this relaxing spot at Peppermint Lane Lodge in the Ferguson Valley look delightful? I want one!

Seriously though, during this time of year do you feel like you are being pulled every which way? We knew it was coming, but now December is here, and only three and a bit weeks to go! what!!!!

At least we have put up the outside Christmas lights at the front of our house, and today hubbie and I sat down to write Christmas cards and letters, and my sister (teacher-farmer's wife - always organised) has been on the phone to sort out Christmas with me.  

But no sorry, I don't have any magical tips to get you through the mad rush of December, but I am sure there our lots out there in blog-land.

I know it is December because the Candlestick Banksias - Banksia attenuata - are flowering in bushland near where we live.  I always think they rather fit into the coming Christmas season.

 I love my December summer garden - I've shown it to you before - and this year is no exception - these are the gorgeous purple agapanthus with a backdrop of red coral bush - they look so gorgeous in summer.

What else has been happening.....

During November I displayed my wares at three markets - at Peppermint Lane Lodge for the Ferguson Open Gardens trail, at the Stirling Street Art Centre Christmas market, and the Bunbury Market.  

At these markets I have been able to showcase some of my work - photography prints, greeting cards and on products such as cushions and tote bags, and my leaf eco-prints - framed prints, greeting cards, and silk scarves.  And also hand folded paper flowers.

 Peppermint Lane Lodge in the Ferguson Valley is a Bed and Breakfast property set in forrest, with wonderful walks which incorporate land art.  Kim is very supportive of the arts and promoting the Ferguson Valley and I have worked with her before.  And I sincerely thank Kim for the opportunities she has sent my way.

 But you also need to take time out in the bustle of life, and we drove up to the Ferguson Valley one Friday to have lunch at Green Door Winery. The food is mainly shared grazing plates, and they bring you little sample bottles of wine to your table. The views over the rolling hills and vineyards to the ocean are beautiful.

 Also this month I borrowed a beautiful book from our local library - Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Beautifully illustrated by Dan Williams, Sea Prayer was inspired by a 3-year-old Syrian refugee who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in September 2015, and is a vivid portrait of life in Homs, Syria, before the war, and of that city's swift transformation from a home into a deadly war zone.

In the rush of our relatively safe suburban life, this little book in a few pages puts our life into perspective, and how grateful we should be.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed this little look into life in my part of the world. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

   
All Seasons
MosaicMonday at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf

Our World Tuesday

Pictorial Tuesday 

ThroughMy Lens 

Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global
Travel Photo Thursday 

The Lovin' Life Team over at: Deep Fried Fruit and 50 Shades of Age
Little Things Thursday

Life in Reflection

Hello there! I love reading your comments. If you scroll down to the bottom you can comment too! I would love to hear from you.

If you are a blogger you can also link your blog to Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global.

An InLinkz Link-up